Tim Johnson mows a strip of yard next to his Broadway Street home in South Toledo. The house behind his home, in background, caught fire more than five years ago and is still standing, to his frustration; and the house beside him was tore down after a fire, but the grass is tall.

Delores Kelly, 65, looks from her porch in her backyard at 1243 Avondale toward the decrepit house next door. The property is to be torn down soon according to Columbia gas who turned off the utilities.